I Ain’t Mad at Cha Lane Kiffin…not at all

January 14th, 2010 | By boadurichard

Is there a bigger pariah in college football right now than Lane Kiffin? It seems like everyone is taking their shots at the man, which I can understand. If you’re a Tennessee Volunteer fan, you may feel betrayed by what he did. Hell, if you’re a fan of “right from wrong,” then you may even be upset. To be honest though, I don’t have anything against Lane Kiffin for what he did, and I’m led to believe there are even more people who feel the same, but their voices are being drowned out by the sounds of mattresses being burned to the ground, folks making signs to curse the man into damnation, as well as anything else that shows understanding for him making this move.

Let’s get some things straight here. If Pete Carroll doesn’t leave USC, then Lane Kiffin doesn’t leave Tennessee. I don’t see Kiffin doing this for any other job in college football. When he stood at the podium in Knoxville, and talked all that trash about wanting to sing Rocky Top all night long after beating Florida, I believed him. Some people are saying he left, because he couldn’t handle the competition of the SEC. Man (or woman), please. I certainly don’t take Kiffin for being a punk. He left, because his heart never left USC, and when the opportunity presented itself to go back to Southern Cal, he bounced.

When I think of Tennessee these days, I think of RC Cola. RC Cola is a good soda, a nice one to satisfy your taste buds, and I would know, from having my fair share of RC Cola while I travel across the state, shocking the world at various high school football games for the past two years. Hell, RC Cola may even be considered great, depending on who you ask. On the other hand, Coca-Cola is USC. When it comes to coke, Coca-Cola is the number one soda in the soda land, and as much as I love RC Cola, I drink RC Cola at football games, only because Coca-Cola isn’t available. I’ve never gone to an event, saw RC Cola and Coca-Cola being offered simultaneously, and told the person behind the counter “lemme get an RC Cola.” That’s because one is infinitely better than the other. That’s the best way for me to sum up Tennessee and USC.

For people saying Kiffin can’t coach, look at the timeline. He was at Oakland, and who on God’s green earth has succeeded in Oakland recently? Look at the show Al Davis put on when he fired Kiffin, and for people who want to use this as Exhibit A, then that’s reaching at its highest level. Oakland is a joke, and it all starts with The Old Man. When Kiffin got to Tennessee, I honestly think he did a better job than people give him credit for. He took all the weight off the players by acting a fool, talking crazy, and I can respect it, and even admire it, because his players didn’t have to do anything, except go out there and play football. As for recruiting violations, get the f— outta here. I’m not going to grill him on that, especially when you see them happening at other schools, and happening at an extremely rapid clip.

The jury is out, as to whether Lane Kiffin is a great coach or not. In his defense, in Oakland, his quarterback was bum-ass Jamarcus Russell, and at Tennessee, it was bum-ass Jonathan Crompton. At least he has something to work with at USC, with Matt Barkley. Monte Kiffin will have the defense live, so I’m not too much worried about that side of the ball. He’s had opportunities, but they’ve always been abbreviated, and I think this will be the best test to see if he’s a high-caliber head man in charge. I honestly think he is, and that’s why I’ll reserve my venom to see him actually use his time to put something together. Like plenty of people say time-and-time again, don’t hate the player, hate the game. When it comes to matters of the NCAA, there are always two sides to the story. We could talk about how they should do something to change the language in a coach’s contract, and maybe we will some day. For now though, the best way for me to sum this up is to wait and see what Kiffin can do, especially since he’s back home.

Be easy.
-K. Masenda
www.edthesportsfan.com

Kiffin Planet takes over at USC

January 13th, 2010 | By boadurichard

“By your Powers Combined!!” USC has made a major move in this chess game that is finding a coach in college football, and checkmate is the overwhelming answer to their problem after Pete Carroll defected to Seattle earlier this week.

Heart!!  Lane Kniffin, the young brash and gifted Bobby Fischer of college football has returned home to Southern California as the next head man at USC. He was a member of the USC coaching staff from 2001 to ‘06, first as wide receivers coach and then as offensive coordinator under Pete Carroll. Kniffin within 24 hours has already assembled a dream team that any college would love to have, but also one that is very familiar with the lay of the land in L.A.

Fire!! Monty Kniffin is coming with Lane to USC. The older Kniffin is a beast as defensive coordinator and really put together a fine defense at Tennessee in his one year there. Monty “Python”, as I like to call him for obvious reasons is a proven commodity at every level of football and if he does half the job he did last year at Tennessee with the athletes he now has under his tutelage at SC, the Trojan defense could very well lead the country in total defense next year.

Wind!!!! Norm Chow the offensive guru, who held the offensive coordinator position from 2001-2004, will breathe fresh air into an offense that was anemic at times last year. I was understood that there was some underlying tension between Chow and Kniffin in the past, but it seems they have squashed their beef in order to take over the college football world. What is so exciting about Chow is he brings proven offensive prowess to the table, but more importantly, he has Matt Barkley at his disposal. We all know what Norm’s offenses did with Matt Leinart and Carson Palmer turning them into Heisman trophy winners. Wrestling Chow away from UCLA was a major coup and will add a little spice to the cross town rivalry, not now but right now.

Water!!  Ed Orgeron is a recruiting beast, browse through the The Meat Market if you need proof or just look at his long resume of success convincing talented young men to play for his teams. The former Ole Miss Head coach is still responsible for the recent resurgence of the Rebels with the great talent he convinced to enroll at Oxford. You need recruits, “water”,  to survive  and USC has been losing big name recruits to out of state schools this year more than they have in recent memory. Tony Jefferson to Oklahoma, Ronald Powell, Travon Van, and Joshua Shaw all to Florida were huge losses for USC this year. USC has always been a national recruiter, but never in recent memory have they lost out on such good talent so close to home, but Orgeron will lock that down asap. Furthermore, if you look at the recruiting push Kniffin and company put on when they arrived at Tennessee last year expect them to make some major waves in the next three weeks leading up to national signing day.

Earth!!  I don’t have a good reference here to tie the whole analogy together, but I can promise you that Kniffin had the Vols heading in the right direction in a major way as soon as he landed in Knoxville. Kniffin, if had chose to stay two more years there would have won an SEC championship. The earth will once again revolve around USC football very soon because the coaching is there, experience is there, the cupboard is far from bare, and Kniffin and company have proven they get it “poppin” as soon as they touch down, no pun intended.

This is a great hire for USC, you have to feel for the Vol Nation, but bringing Kniffin home may well solidify USC as THE POWER west of the Mississippi many years into the future once Kniffin and the rest of his talented Planeteers let their powers combine. Look for a product truly special coming out of Los Angeles.

Chow ……. Pun intended,

Claude Clayborne
6Magazine
CO-EIC
“The defensive coordinator of 6Magazine” – Defense wins championships!

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